A Win-Win for Gender, Agriculture and Nutrition

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The project “A Win-Win for Gender, Agriculture and Nutrition: Testing a Gender- Transformative Approach from Asia in Africa” is a four-year research program, implemented in six communes in the provinces of Kirundo and Gitega in Burundi, to test an innovative, gender-transformative approach for the agriculture sector that starts with developing critical consciousness and challenging discriminatory beliefs and social norms through a model of reflection, community dialogue and collective action. CARE and partners are testing how this approach improves gender equality and how a focus on power relations and consciousness-raising may also yield sustainable effects on food security, nutrition and economic well-being. The project is testing two key approaches (1) a gender-transformative model (the “EKATA”- Empowerment through Knowledge And Transformative Action- model) for gender equality and (2) a typical gender-mainstreamed approach in the agriculture sector (“Gender-Light” model), in which basic gender activities are integrated into a program that has a principal focus and measures of success on women’s economic empowerment through agriculture and micro-enterprise development. The key research question is “What is the added value, and what are the associated costs of applying a gender-transformative approach within a livelihoods intervention, in terms of accelerating lasting transformations in gender equality, food security and economic well- being?”[66 pages]